As another Toronto Raptors season crawls to its conclusion, a franchise teetering on irrelevance has a series of enormous decisions to make.

There may not be any one right answer for Tom Anselmi and the board of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, but there is almost certainly a wrong one.

The decisions, as they seemingly do at the end of every Raptors season, revolve around the general manager, Bryan Colangelo, and the coach, Dwane Casey. Colangelo has an option year remaining on his contract. Casey has one year left on his deal.

And the team is forever paddling in circles, creating the occasional wave, but ending up nowhere in the end.

The decision for Anselmi and the board isn’t in any way obvious, with the largest issue being the relationship between Colangelo and Casey. Colangelo did his best to distance himself from his coach early in the season and there has been all kind of internal speculation that the two can’t possibly work together again.

That determination may wind up saving his job or costing him the position.

Here’s the dilemma for Anselmi and the board: Do they use the option year on Colangelo’s deal and enable him an eighth season as general manager? Or do they have enough faith in Colangelo to reward him with a new contract, which would be based as much on blind faith and the fact he gives good board meetings as anything else?

Anselmi and the board will decide on Colangelo. They will not decide on Casey. “The GM makes the call on the coach,” said Anselmi on Tuesday.

Five years ago, the Raptors didn’t make the playoffs and won 33 games. This year, the Raptors didn’t make the playoffs and may win 33 games. In between was a whole lot of wasted time and talk of cap management, salary flexibility and development.

Five years ago, for example, the New York Knicks won 32 games. This year, they won 53. The previous Raptors GM, Glen Grunwald, has done more efficient work in New York in a situation that seemed far worse than Toronto’s than the man who actually replaced him.

But that’s another story for another day.

Whatever determination is made on Colangelo’s future puts Casey’s future in a rather distant place. If one doesn’t believe in the other — and we saw what happened how effective it was when Brian Burke allowed Ron Wilson to continue on when they were philosophically opposed with the Leafs — then what sense is having Colangelo back with Casey as coach?

Colangelo apparently tried to fire Casey at least once during the season, insiders say, but wasn’t given the go-ahead to do so.

Now, if Colangelo is back for a year and wants to bring in a new coach, he would have to sign that man to a contract longer than the term remaining on his own contract, which is convoluted enough. And if Anselmi and friends don’t want to give him more than the option year, they wind up with a lame-duck general manager with either a lame-duck coach or a new coach who may not fit a year from now if there’s a new GM on the horizon.

Colangelo hasn’t helped himself by his annual summers of bad decisions. There are only so many Landry Fields and Hedo Turkoglus and Jason Kaponos and Jermaine O’Neills you can miss on.

Casey, as coach, didn’t help himself by following up a decent first year with a scrambly second year and an absolute inability to compete in close ones. It probably made matters worse that Colangelo brought in a point guard in Kyle Lowry, who was (a) out of shape and (b) basically impossible to coach, which was his reputation before he got here. Then after the Rudy Gay trade, which brought life to the team for about three weeks, it seemed their highest-priced player wasn’t exactly in Kobe Bryant shape before the Achilles injury.

Colangelo’s hiring of Alex McKechnie from the Lakers, as a strength and conditioning specialist, should have solved some of the player issues on the court. It didn’t.

These are just some of the issues — there are so many more. The Raptors have their players, but don’t have a first-round draft pick in what’s considered a rather weak draft. That pick was used in the Lowry deal. They have players such as DeMar DeRozan, Gay and Lowry who, individually, may be fine, but collectively are a bad mix.

So far, Anselmi has revamped the entire front office of Toronto FC and he played good soldier when some of the ownership decided to fire Brian Burke with the Leafs. Now he has a chance to go 3-for-3 in his first year on the job as president and chief operating officer.

“It’s not like we’re going to make an out of the blue decision. There’s been conversation going on all season long,” said Anselmi. “Is it any more complicated than usual? I don’t know. Either Bryan’s going to be in place and making decisions or someone else will be in place and make the decision on the coach. Leadership is very important to us.”

The Raptors’ season ends tonight. There is no meeting yet scheduled for the MLSE board. A decision on Colangelo is expected by early May.

Raptors have big decision to make on GM Bryan Colangelo

As another Toronto Raptors season crawls to its conclusion, a franchise teetering on irrelevance has a series of enormous decisions to make.

There may not be any one right answer for Tom Anselmi and the board of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, but there is almost certainly a wrong one.

The decisions, as they seemingly do at the end of every Raptors season, revolve around the general manager, Bryan Colangelo, and the coach, Dwane Casey. Colangelo has an option year remaining on his contract. Casey has one year left on his deal.

And the team is forever paddling in circles, creating the occasional wave, but ending up nowhere in the end.

The decision for Anselmi and the board isn’t in any way obvious, with the largest issue being the relationship between Colangelo and Casey. Colangelo did his best to distance himself from his coach early in the season and there has been all kind of internal speculation that the two can’t possibly work together again.